Mystery shopping is the program some people still prefer to push aside. Yet, it’s the only real objective retail tool available. Why is it so disrespected? Because it’s often misunderstood, poorly implemented or improperly used.

If you're not using a mystery shopping program or if you're not using the one you have to your full advantage, you could be overlooking a powerful competitive weapon. When done right, mystery shopping is a tremendous asset for retailers.

When it comes to evaluating customer experience, we all wish there was a silver bullet solution that could tell us the whole story.

In reality, it’s a little more complicated. If you consider just how many separate pieces come together to create the overall shopping experience, it makes sense to measure that experience a number of different ways to paint the full picture.

Mystery shopper programs are an excellent way to measure frontline staff performance, recognize those who are providing stellar customer service and uncover potential service issues that need improvement before they become big headaches. However, a mystery shopper program can easily be sunk before it even starts.

All business owners need to have the big picture of their customers’ behavior. If you’re continually looking to improve your brand, then you need to continually consider ways to improve customer satisfaction.

As retailers, there’s a truth we’re all going to have to start recognizing: No one walks into a store without wanting to buy something. Will 100% of them buy from you? No.

The typical apparel retail store has a conversion rate of 18%. That means 100 people walk through the doors and 82 walk out without having made a purchase. Now, that’s not a terrible percentage when you consider the potential revenue it might generate across a hundred stores, but is there room to improve? Absolutely.

Mystery shopping is the best way retailers can get a truly objective view of the daily workings of their stores. When done right, mystery shopping services provide valuable quantitative information about the customer experience that helps retailers optimize resources, motivate associates, and generally improve operations all around.

It's hard to believe that we're almost halfway into 2015, but savvy marketers are already looking ahead to 2016, planning out their strategies for breaking away from competitors and drawing in more loyal customers.

How well do you really know what's going on at your various store locations? Although your employees are trained to carry out their duties and behave in a certain manner, there's no way for you to be absolutely certain that they are following company procedures and providing consistently stellar service to your customers - unless you have a mystery shopping program in place.

A brand promise is: "This is what we will deliver to you." Pretty simple, right? Maybe.

We’ve collected some of the greatest brand promise examples we’ve ever seen. Some of these brands you’d expect to make the list, and others may come as a surprise, but it just goes to show that a successful brand is a lot more than a logo, icon or memorable slogan.

When it comes to mystery shopping and customer satisfaction surveys, many companies are left wondering which option is right for them. Each has it’s own unique advantages that can be helpful in different ways. Because these look at different aspects of the experience, your business can use both to identify potential issues and improve store operations and the customer experience.

You've decided your company will benefit from a shopper evaluation program, but what next? When you're choosing a mystery shopping company to work with you'll want to ask the right questions to find the company that will be best suited to your business needs.

To get the most return on your investment in mystery shopping, you must ensure that both field managers and associates understand the benefits and mechanics of the mystery shopping program. Mystery shopping helps communicate well-defined standards of behavior that lead to satisfied customers, and increases the probability that those standards of behavior are consistently delivered to the customer, regardless of which of a retailer’s hundreds of locations visited.